Hi Hubbers, Been toying with the idea for quite a bit of time to approach The Hub with our journey and see if we can reach out to a business to get involved with our journey. So here goes might be a bit of a read but will be a good one. Towards the end of 2015 my wife took up track cycling, competed in her first Grand Prix at Hector Norris and performed well. Early in 2016 she did her first provincials and again performed well in all the events, bar sprinting . March of 2016 and she competed in her first SA's. IIRC she won gold in the 1500m, IP and Omnium (she actually hated the omnium ). So up to this point she was quite competitive on the road as well as winning a couple of races but the track was were she wanted to excel and get to the Olympics. We just knew we had to get to Europe to race on indoor tracks and against the worlds best and doing this out of South Africa is not affordable. I got blessed with the opportunity to come and work for an international consulting firm in London and without thinking twice we grabbed the opportunity and through a fully supportive friend the move was made possible. Throughout 2017 and up to the Commonwealth Games the focus was on endurance, although she already knew before the Commonwealth Games that she will be switching over to sprinting, testing during the Games also confirmed this. She has made enormous progress in a year and even more after joining a British based Sprinting club 8 months ago. So back to chasing qualification for Olympics, your ranking will be based on the following and what makes it a bit more difficult is that bigger nations have team sprint teams which then automatically qualify them for sprint and keirin spots: Best 3 World Cups for 1st season (2018/2019) Best 3 World Cups for 2nd season (2019/2020) 2019 and 2020 World Championships 2019 and 2020 Continental To qualify to be able to ride World Cups the following events count and cut off is September every year: Best 3 Class 1 races Best 3 Class 2 races National Champs World Champs Continental Champs We are now in the 2019/2020 season and the chase for points to qualify for the World Cups has started. Currently she ranked 27th in the Sprint and 26th in the Keirin, World Rankings. The Sprint and the Keirin are the two Olympic events, so that is the only focus now. Sometimes she will race the 500m TT if she has the opportunity, but it is not a focus and currently she is ranked 14th in the TT, but it is not an Olympic event. We have already planned and booked her races in order to qualify for this seasons World Cups. She is well on her way in preparing for them and her PB's in the gym and on the track at the recent club event without tapering is impressive. Why post this on The Hub? Well track cycling generally does not get the best exposure even around Europe. They only televise the major events which is great and really exciting. Currently she has one sponsor who gives us financial support during the year which goes a long way and gets her mostly to most races but she still has to work part-time to supplement this which is not ideal. She always travels and has to keep her travelling and time away short due to work which means she usually only arrives the day before the event which is not ideal. She only has a manger or help when I can travel with or her fellow Saffa chasing the same dream is attending the same event, which already makes a huge difference. We want to try and get her fully focused on training, racing and recovery over the next year and by posting this on here reaching out to Hubbers who own companies or work for companies whom may want to support an athlete developing and reaching the Olympics. Following Olympics 2020, Commonwealth 2022 is the next goal followed by Olympics 2024. We know she may not podium yet at the first Olympics however her times are coming down ahead of time so who knows . She has a backabuddy account which anybody who may want to donate could do so here https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/my-journey-to-tokyo-2020-olympic-games . Or https://www.gofundme.com/f/my-journey-to-olympic-games Long term goals would be to get more Saffas racing on the circuit and this is possible if you have a EU or UK base, which we will provide, and what would make a lot more affordable. Please send me a PM if you would like to discuss anything or know anything in more detail.
